Singer & Friedlander, the UK broker owned by Icelandic bank Kaupthing, has expanded its investment banking business by hiring heads of corporate finance and UK equity sales trading.

The group has recruited Penny Bridges from Dresdner Kleinwort as head of corporate finance and Andy Cuthill as head of UK equity sales trading from CAI Cheuvreux. Tim Cockroft, a former chief executive and head of trading at broker KBC Peel Hunt, was appointed to develop a capital markets division in April and has since hired at least six sector heads. Hugh McAlister came from Dresdner Kleinwort to head trading last month and Marcus Chorley joins as head of sales next month after 15 years as a managing director at UBS, most recently as head of the mid and small-cap sales team. Other recruits include Paul Wedge, who joined to head corporate broking in May from KBC and Steven Floydd, who was hired last month from Dresdner as head of UK equity marketmaking. Bridges, who has yet to start her new job, was a director in Dresdner Kleinwort's European mergers and acquisitions team where she spent 12 years. She advised on transactions including the contested offers for car distributors Reg Vardy by Pendragon and Lookers, PartyGaming's acquisition of Empire Online's business, PartyGaming's initial public offering and E.On's offer for Powergen.